If you've ever worked in the museum field, than you know we don't like to use the term "permanent" exhibit. Things change, and that's OK. |
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Here at MSJE, we're very proud of our exhibits, but we're never afraid to make additions, especially when we acquire exceptional artifacts. Such is the case with these wonderful portraits of Julia Kiefer Newman and Louis T. Newman (seen here with great-granddaughter Jane Lowentritt). The portraits were painted in 1871 by Thomas Cantwell Healy, a well-known portraitist in Mississippi (although Thomas's brother George was an even better-known artist, having painted portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and other prominent figures of the time). The portraits show a couple who had attained a level of wealth and status in their Port Gibson community to be able to commission and sit for the artist.
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Louis Newman (1835-1903) was born in Pfalz, Germany and, after immigrating to the United States, became a successful dry goods merchant in Port Gibson, country seat of Claiborne County, Mississippi. He would become even more successful when he married Julia Keifer (1841-1878), who was born in Alsace and was the daughter of Louis Keifer. Thus was born the firm of Newman and Keifer, cotton merchants who can be counted in that large number of Jewish merchants who helped the South's recovery after the Civil War by advancing seed and supply to farmers when the banking structure of the region had collapsed. Louis Newman was also one of the 22 charter members of Port Gibson's Congregation Gemiluth Chased, in 1859. |
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Louis and Julia had eight children. The sixth was Bertha Newman, who married Isidore Kohlmeyer in 1892. Their son Hugh Kohlmeyer married Ida Rittenberg in 1934. Jane Lowentritt is Hugh and Ida's daughter. L'dor vador (from generation to generation).
Thank you, Jane Lowentritt, for this special donation to the MSJE. Thank you Robert Wolf for the genealogical information about the Keifer-Newman-Kohlmeyer-Rittenberg-Lowentritt families. And thank you to our curator, Michael Jacobs, for prepping and hanging the portraits. Y'all come by and see them while they're up in our State-by-State Gallery!
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And another BIG annoucement... |
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MSJE is GROWING (upwards, that is)!
We recently announced to our Museum Members (they get all the news first - click here to join the exclusive club!) that MSJE is expanding upwards to the third floor of our building, where we are creating the Southern Jewish Family Research Center.
This is is an incredibly exciting project that will
have dedicated space for archival preservation and digitization, an oral history studio, and a research library and reading room where we will be able to help people explore their Southern Jewish roots.
We're just getting started, and there is much work to do before the Center opens, but we are thrilled about the potential of this expansion to strengthen the connections with our past and keep alive the memories of those who came before.
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You'll be hearing a lot more about this major project in the months to come! In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more about our plans and opportunities to support, please reach out to our executive director at kenneth@msje.org.
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When is YOUR Congregation Coming?
Plan your group visit to MSJE
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Last week, members of Congregation B’nai Israel, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, visited the museum and got a special tour from our executive director. The congregation was started in 1915 and their current synagogue, built in 1946, was recent added to the National Register of Historic Places.
When is YOUR congregation going to make a special trip to MSJE?
Book your tour here, or contact Visitor Services
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King Cake Challah Happy Hour
For Young Professionals
🍹 TONIGHT 🎭
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Join us TONIGHT at the Museum for a Happy Hour unlike any other! In addition to unlimited drinks, we'll decorate delicious mini King Cake Challahs made by the one and only SerenaBakesBread, bead our own Mardi Gras bracelets, and shmooze the night away. Entrance fee provides one mini King Cake Challah to decorate and bottomless drinks. This event is in partnership with Young Adults at Shir Chadash.
Date: Thursday, February 1st
Time: 5:30pm
Location: MSJE
Cost: $20
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Rosenwald: Film Screening
Film by Aviva Kempner
Wednesday, February 28
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Join us for a screening of Rosenwald, a feature-length documentary telling the incredible story of how businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald joined forces with Booker T. Washington and African American communities in the segregationist Jim Crow South to build 5,000 schools. The film was created by Jewish filmmaker Aviva Kempner. Light movie refreshment will be served during the screening.
Date: Wednesday, February 28th
Time: 6:00pm Central
Location: MSJE
Cost: $8 Members/$10 non-Members
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This event is part of an ongoing series centered around our current Special Exhibition, “A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America".
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2024 Middle School Writing Contest
✏️ NOW OPEN! 📚
"Why do you think the United States should create a
Rosenwald Schools National Park?"
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Our topic this year is drawn from the Museum’s current Special Exhibition, which explores how the Rosenwald schools, built through Jewish-Black partnership, narrowed the Black-white education gap that plagued Southern states, helped to build a new African American middle class, and paved the way for the Civil Rights movement.
This year's prompt asks students to write persuasive letters to their congresspeople explaining why they support the campaign to memorialize the Rosenwald schools by creating a Rosenwald Schools National Park.
All students grade 5-8 from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia are invited to send in an entry!
Know a middle schooler who should apply (and would love to win the $500 first prize)? Send them the link below!
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EVENT RECORDINGS
Did you miss one of our recent programs? Find full videos below!
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WATCH: Corresponding Angles
The Remarkable Story of a Liberator and a Survivor
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Dr. Reuben Sloan and Gail Cohn’s story of finding each other in Atlanta and unraveling this improbable shared family saga of a World War II liberator and a Holocaust survivor is a moving, emotional and educational experience that the two have developed into a deeply meaningful presentation. |
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Museum Store
Mardi Gras Mezuzah by a Southern Jewish Artist
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Whether you’re a NOLA native and diehard Mardi Gras fan, a Southerner with a soft spot for the Crescent City, or an MSJE supporter from anywhere, this Mardi Gras-themed mezuzah is the perfect way to keep the Jewish South in your heart (and on your doorpost) 365 days of the year. Plus, it's made by a Southern Jewish artist – support local! |
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The Museum Store is dedicated by Harold Wainer in memory of George & Helen Wainer
and Harriet Wainer Kugler.
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This Month in Southern Jewish History |
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SOUTH CAROLINA: February 9, 1866
N. Levin, Jr. advertises his kosher products, newly arrived from New York, to the Jewish population of Charleston. In the spring he will advertise Passover supplies. Subsequent news stories show him going bankrupt in 1868, but not to worry – he shows up soon after as the treasurer of the newly opened Academy of Music, in 1869.
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TEXAS: February 11, 1921
The Jewish Monitor, published weekly in Dallas, issues its first annual Waco Edition, complete with biographical sketches of Rabbis Wolfe Macht and Isaac Siegel, businessmen Louey Migel and Asher Sanger, and Waco founder Jacob DeCordova. Also included are the goings-on at Congregation Rodef Sholom, the B'nai B'rith's Eureka Lodge, the Council of Jewish Women, and The Progress Club.
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LOUISIANA: February 13, 1872
New Orleans cotton merchant Louis Salomon serves as the first Rex, having just organized the "krewe" in part to honor the visiting Grand Duke of Russia, Alexei Alexandrovich. Much is made of Rex – one of the most prominent Carnival krewes – being founded by a Jew, but in truth, Salomon converted to Catholicism a decade earlier just before enlisting to fight for the Confederacy. (Yet, he's buried in a Jewish cemetery in New York.) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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TENNESSEE: February 22, 1870
J. Wechsler, minister of the Reform Congregation in Nashville, writes a letter to The Tennessean protesting the mandatory Sunday closing law, which he says discriminates against Jewish merchants. He writes, "the law of the State that the Israelite shall not be permitted to transact business on the Christian Sunday, virtually destroys freedom of religion."
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ALABAMA: February 23, 1900
Mishkan Israel Synagogue is dedicated in Selma. At the time, Selma had a thriving Jewish population, with Jewish merchants like Teppers, Kaysers, Liepolds, Rothchilds, Adler Furniture, Benish and Meyer Tobacco, Siegel Automobile Company, Barton’s Bargain Store, Bendersky’s, and Eagles dominated the shopping district. Today the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
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FLORIDA: February 23, 1981
Josh Gad is born in Hollywood to immigrant Jewish parents, his father coming from Afghanistan and his mother from Germany. An award-winning actor and singer, Gad is best known for roles voicing Olaf in the movie Frozen and playing Arnold Cunningham on Broadway in The Book of Mormon. His portrayal of a Jewish lawyer opposite Chadwick Boseman in Marshall, touches on the shared struggle for equality between African Americans and Jews.
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If you like this newsletter and like our museum, please support us so we can continue to share our stories! |
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GIVE ONLINE
MAIL US A CHECK
to PO Box 15071, New Orleans, LA 70175
DONATE FROM YOUR IRA
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DESIGNATE MSJE
as a recipient of your Donor Advised Fund
DONATE STOCK
or other marketable securities
INCLUDE MSJE
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Shalom. Make yourself at home.®
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Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience
818 Howard Avenue | New Orleans, LA 70113
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Banner images (l-r): Members of Congregation Beth Israel in Clarksdale, MS, c.1910. Collection of Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience; Blue Star campers, North Carolina, 2016. Courtesy of Blue Star Camps.
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